VAL vulgo bagre 🐟

I’m an artist! I’ve always wanted to be an artist! And I’m a pretty good one! But I work two jobs in an unrelated industry so I can pay rent, and when I’m not exhausted from THAT I can do the thing I enjoy and have talent in as a hobby. And when I try to enjoy other people’s art, it’s completely saturated in AI shit made of stolen art generated by an algorithm used by people who have no skill and no desire to learn, who don’t actually appreciate the creative process.

My colleague has a degree in archaeology! He’s passionate about it! But he can’t afford to keep studying and works two jobs to pay rent. And when he’s not exhausted from THAT, maybe he can go online and watch videos and read articles… which are increasingly saturated by fake videos and conspiracy theories and unsourced bullshit hidden behind fancy headlines full of ads.

It’s like… People with skills and interests are too busy struggling with food and shelter to produce real art and real science and real tangible things, because prices keep going up while quality keeps going down, so the creators and the innovators who aren’t lucky enough to be born into wealth are stuck doing mindless shit they hate while machines churn out slop at low quality and low cost, and it’s all just become a race to the bottom.